Moose

Fri. 6 July:  Moose Mountain

A perfect day for a stroll up a mountain.  What better choice than Moose Mountain, even if it was my second trip to the lookout in a month.  On my previous journey, there were still some large snowdrifts along the route.  They had all melted.

My colleague R and I both consider this one of the finest hikes in the Rockies, and it did not disappoint today.  As usual, an early start is the best guard against afternoon thundershowers.  The skies were clear when we started off, and by the end, heavy showers were threatening – but we enjoyed lots of warm sunshine and no rain.

Although we were first at the car park, we were overtaken about halfway up the mountain by two young women.  For we were in no hurry and enjoyed our mountain stroll.  The wildflowers were starting to give a good display, and the cool breeze was ideal for this trip.

Today, we met the lookout observer on the summit, an all too rare occurrence these days.  And I knew who he was.  It was Laszlo Horvath, probably the senior observer in the Alberta forest service, and we had met on the summit of Junction Mountain at his lookout station exactly three years ago this weekend.  He also recalled my visit.  Laszlo told us that he did have some reservations agreeing to take on Moose Mountain, as it gets crowded with hikers here most summer weekends.  But it seems that they needed the best person they had to stand guard over the forests above Bragg Creek, and I have no doubt that Laszlo was hand-picked for the job.  He is very aware of the dangers of a catastrophic fire in the Bragg Creek area, and an early warning is the only way that many lives would be saved, if there was ever a fire such as the one which ravaged Slave Lake last year.

Laszlo mentioned that the days of the observer may be limited.  They have now introduced high-tech high definition cameras at places such as Barrier Lookout.  These cameras have the ability to scan and home-in on fires with incredible accuracy, and are manned by people sitting at a big screen somewhere in Calgary.  I had seen such a camera up on Mt. Burke in 2010.  That particular camera, Laszlo said, had to be moved as it would shake too much in the wind.  I had waved at it, imagining it would give some amusement to an operator in some city skyscraper.

Laszlo’s Junction Hill lookout was taken over by a lady this year who said that her first visitor only arrived on July 2nd.  They usually only get 45-50 visitors each year up there.  In contrast, that’s the number they get on any half decent day at Moose Mountain, including the stormy days.  Laszlo even saw people making their way off the summit at 7 a.m. as he got up one recent morning.

He chose this high lookout spot also because he likes to be up on the higher peaks, despite the constant lightning strikes.  He had a lightning strike recently which set his highly accurate clock back two hours, which he said has never happened before and was a mystery to everyone.  I suggested that perhaps he had gone backwards two hours in time!

The clouds were building rapidly and Laszlo thought there might be showers by noon, so we made our farewells and R and I headed back down to the safety of the lower hillsides, just as the next hiker – a single guy – arrived on the summit.  As we returned down the mountain, a few well-spaced groups of people were making their way up.  It would not be particularly crowded up there today.

We stayed dry, and looking back up the slopes from far below, it actually looked as if the weather was clearing up at the summit.  But off to the east, a shower was sweeping across the foothills towards Calgary.

Today was the Calgary Stampede parade, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Stampede.  Four hundred thousand people were lining the streets of downtown Calgary at that very moment.  Luckily we had lots more space up here on this justifiably popular mountain trail.

Statistics
Moose Mountain
Fri. 6 July
Total Dist.	15.0 km (hike)
Height Gain	2,000 ft.
Max. Elev.	7,995 ft.
Time	4 hrs. 58 mins.

Other Stats.
Start hike:7.52 am Summit: 10.20 am Ret. to car:12.50 pm	Temp: + 9 C to + 19 C Warm, sunny, cloud build-up, no wind.

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